The present invention is generally directed to recloseable rings and, more specifically, to an improved recloseable ring and a method of manufacture thereof.
Recloseable rings generally include two shank portions that are detachably connected to allow placement of the recloseable ring on a finger without necessitating that the ring slide over the length of a finger for proper positioning. A ring wearer can sometimes encounter difficulty properly positioning a ring on his or her finger due to relatively large knuckle size and increases in finger size due to stress, medications, pregnancy, or the like. Recloseable rings are designed to provide a custom fit that obviates the above problems.
Conventional recloseable rings require significant highly skilled manual labor due to numerous handcrafting steps that need to be performed by accomplished jewelers. Typically, such rings are manufactured using molds that are used to injection mold ring component pieces that are then used for casting portions of conventional recloseable rings. Once the portions of the recloseable ring are cast, numerous precision manual adjustments and processes must be performed by highly skilled jewelers.
Referring to FIGS. 6A-6C, the molds used for conventional recloseable rings are designed to create a mound of metal 20 which surrounds a latch pin hole 22 on an end of one of the ring shank portions 24 that supports a latch 28. Once the pin 26 is inserted into the hole and through the latch during the assembly process, the ring shank portion 24 and latch 28 are taken to a riveting machine (not shown), carefully lined up and clamped into position. The proper positioning and clamping of a delicate high-end jewelry piece is painstaking, time consuming work for a jeweler.
The jeweler then has to carefully lower the rivet machine bit over the mound of metal 20 that surrounds the pin 26 and push the metal 20 over the top of the pin. Referring specifically to FIG. 6B, when the hole 22 was covered, the shank portion 24 and latch 28 were removed from the clamp. Referring to FIG. 6C, any excess metal was then polished smooth to form a pleasing aesthetic look. However, this manufacturing process is problematic in that the jeweler can never be sure precisely how much metal 30 remains to cover the latch pin after polishing. This results in ring wearers experiencing breakdowns and requiring repairs that are expensive for the wearer and damaging to the reputation of the ring manufacturer.
Referring to FIGS. 9C-9F, the conventional recloseable ring also requires two additional riveting operations to hingeably connect the two ring shank portions. The hinge pin 32 is secured within the hinge pin hole 34 without any mounds of metal 20 being pre-formed on the hinge ends of the shank portions. Referring specifically to FIG. 9C, the hinge pin 32 is inserted into the hinge pin hole 34 and extends outwardly on both sides of the connected ring shank portions. The extra length of the pin 32 is then used to fill the gaps between the outer shank portion walls and the pin to secure the hinge pin 32 into position. Referring to FIG. 9D, the two shank portions 24 and the hinge pin 32 are taken to the riveting machine, lined up, and clamped into position. Then, the riveting machine compresses a first end of the hinge pin 32 to fill the corresponding gap. Then, referring to FIG. 9E, the two ring shank portions 24 and the hinge pin 32 are removed from the riveting machine, reversed in position, painstakingly repositioned in the machine, lined up, and clamped in place. Then, the press is lowered onto the remaining protruding portion of the hinge pin 32 to force the excess metal to spread out and fill the remaining gap. Then it is necessary to manually polish both sides of the ring to eliminate any blemishes created by the filling of the gaps between the hinge pin and the outer shank portion walls.
Accordingly, the riveting process for conventional recloseable rings must be performed three times. It is inefficient, time consuming, and creates troublesome inconsistencies in the finished product. The hinge holes and latch holes are often not completely filled, not secured, and can be unsightly as a jewelry product.
Another problem with conventional recloseable rings is that the latches used to secure the ring are generally thin and weak. A thin latch is inadequate for normal daily wear and is one of the most common reasons for the return of a recloseable ring. During the normal process of filing and polishing the shank portions 24, a bench jeweler often removes too much metal from the latch, thinning it further and causing it to bend easily. This results in the latch being defective. One solution has been to make the overall ring generally thicker to allow the latch to also be thicker. While this somewhat addresses the problem of a defective latch, it results in a bulkier and less attractive recloseable ring.
Conventional recloseable rings also require a significant depression of a free end of the latch to release the latch to remove the ring. This significant depression distance detracts from the convenience and operability of the ring.
Referring to FIG. 12, conventional recloseable rings include a shank portion 24 defining a cavity 38 to receive a head 40 of the latch 28. The cavity 38 is generally formed by opposing side walls 42 and a base 44. The opposing side walls intersect the base 44 at a ninety (90°) degree angle which requires that the connection area 43 between the base 44 and the opposing side walls 42 be sufficiently large to avoid separation during injection molding of the piece used to form the shank portion. This minimizes the size of the latch head 40 which limits the thickness of the latch and therefore weakens the latch connection of conventional recloseable rings.
Referring to FIG. 9B, conventional recloseable rings also require the filing of shank portion edges 46 proximate to the hinge ends thereof to reduce the incidence of scratching or catching of any loose finger skin when the ring is put on. The filing and polishing of the edges 46 is a time consuming and delicate process that must be performed by a jeweler that results in inconsistencies between rings.
The molds for forming the ring component pieces for conventional recloseable rings are manufactured on an individual basis. During the manufacture of the molds, each mold is modified based on intuition from a prior mold(s) which results in no consistency between the molds. Each mold is only capable of producing a single shank portion which makes production even more costly. As this is the only known way of using injection molding to manufacturer recloseable rings, any shrinkage of the material used to form the ring component pieces during the manufacturing process results in each component of the finished ring needing significant adjustment to properly assemble a suitable recloseable ring. Accordingly, each ring requires varying amounts of corrective labor depending upon the molds that were used to make the desired ring. Correcting the actual size of the ring components requires that the ring shank portions are manually inserted into a rolling mill and stretched to size. This causes the rings to twist and torque which reduces the effective alignment between the ring shank portions when assembled. In some cases, it is necessary to manually place the conventional ring shank portions in a bench vice so that a jeweler can carefully judge how much pressure is necessary to straighten each piece. The correction of the sizing of ring shank portions manufactured using the individual molds is delicate, time consuming work that requires a highly skilled jeweler.
Conventional recloseable rings use a “one size fits all” latch to accommodate various ring sizes. To create a proper fit for the latch, it is necessary to bend and fit the latch for each ring. This is a delicate, time consuming process for a jeweler that results in a high number of rejects. When the latch must be shortened, and too much excess latch material is removed, a ring will not function properly and must be scrapped.
As should be apparent from the above, conventional recloseable rings require significant, expensive, highly skilled manual labor by expert jewelers to produce a superior product. It would be advantageous to provide an improved recloseable ring and method of manufacture thereof that reduces the amount of skill and manual labor necessary to manufacture a satisfactory product; that provides a thicker latch without a corresponding increase in thickness of the overall ring; that eliminates many of the polishing steps; that eliminates the multiple excruciating uses of the rivet machine; that reduces the occurrence of pinched skin when placing the recloseable ring over a finger; that provides for uniform molds across all ring sizes; that allows the ring component pieces used to form both halves of the ring to be formed by a single injection molding operation; and/or that eliminates the “one size fits all” latch used in conventional recloseable rings.